Moberly recalls General Omar Bradley's birthday

By Sam Richardson/Special to the Index
Posted Feb. 12, 2013 at 1:00 PM

Moberly, Mo.

Sixty-one years ago today, Moberlyan Omar Bradley received a personal telegram from the President of the United States, congratulating him on his 59th birthday and calling him "a great soldier discharging high responsibilities in foreign parts." The White House telegram found General of the Army Bradley overseas fulfilling his duties as first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

President Harry S Truman regularly exchanged personal birthday wishes with his fellow Missourian Bradley, whom Truman had appointed to several posts—including Administrator of the Veterans Administration, Chief of Staff of the Army, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and military commander of NATO.

In 1948, Truman acknowledged a birthday note from Bradley with the comment, "I appreciated most highly your thoughtfulness in remembering my birthday. It made things go easier all day."

Bradley was born in rural Randolph County in 1893, graduated from Moberly High School in 1910, married his high school sweetheart Mary Quayle and returned to Moberly regularly throughout his life. He died in New York April 8, 1981, and was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery April 14, 1981.

Bradley's birthday, Feb. 12, has previously been established as Omar Bradley Day by the U.S. House of Representatives, the Missouri Senate, Missouri House of Representatives, County of Randolph and City of Moberly. A bust of Bradley is prominently displayed in the Rotunda of the Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City and a statue of Bradley is the centerpiece of a war memorial in Moberly's Rothwell Park.